


Schrödinger's Queen

by Morbane



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book: The Magician's Nephew, Chewing Scenery, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Dark, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 20:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/871495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/pseuds/Morbane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>I can't excuse what [Digory] did next except by saying that he was a great deal sorry for it afterwards (and so were a good many other people).</i>
</p><p>Many more, indeed, than you, or I, or Digory ever knew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Schrödinger's Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kastaka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kastaka/gifts).



I shall not blame myself that I did not anticipate the rings, for on Charn, the greatest Magic is that of words. Indeed, my own words to the children, though they were charged only with conviction, set them in disarray.

I should have expected that. They were meager creatures, so the advent of rule by a Personage so much more wondrous than themselves ought to have been cause for celebration. Yet I have observed that the meaner a being is, the more it seeks its own aggrandisement, and puffs itself up to protect against its own flaws. Although my reign would put them within sight of glory inconceivable to them, and my plans would have prospered and not harmed them — had they done me honour — they were dismayed.

The girl spat foully at me, and when I seized upon her to punish her, I provoked the pair into attempting an escape, revealing their means of travel.

That act of transit was not unlike the experience I had had, in the great Hall after the battle, of going down into sleep beside my ancestors; a sense of sinking deeper into the world.

Though there had been none to witness it, I think to choose that sleep, from which I might not wake, was the noblest thing I had ever done; it was death, or near enough, that I went calmly to. The swift rush of the battle was still with me then, etching that memory on my mind; but then my senses faded, the world going dim and quiet, while my wits were clear, until it was as if I were a mind trapped in only a likeness of a body. Then out I went, and with me, the world.

It was no less terrible a place than that, no less manifest a Death, that the children brought me to.

An ignorant person might look through that expanse of trees and pools and feel foolish pleasure at its peace. But I am a practitioner of Magic, and I saw it for what it was. The force that ruled over that place exists in all, but was here unbounded; it is Life itself without leash, that drives on heedlessly towards a purposeless end and takes all with it. Men, by their greatest of deeds, impose a shape on it, if they can: dam the rivers, soak away the sun, bridle the wind, set the flowers to waiting. Magicians, the highest of men, do more; they reach into the laws themselves and write them anew. That was not possible here, at the wellspring of worlds. I had no power.

I was aghast at my own weakness. The children were able to throw off my hands. "Mercy," I begged of them, concealing anger beneath my plea. Had I not led them out of the crumbling halls? Without my guidance they would have perished beneath the palace masonry; and now they sought to save their skin and leave me in equal peril.

The boy hesitated. Not trusting to either his courage or his cunning, I seized him; a weak grip, truly, but on his ear, where he was sure to feel it.

The girl leapt into a pool and was gone as if dissolved into the water.

I smiled at the boy. "Shall we not follow her?"

"No," he said, the wretch. "Let go of me!"

"Fool," I said, "and why should I do that?" Little as his words interested me, I must engage with him to break this stalemate.

He swallowed. Snivelling child; in this temple of entropy he, while physically sound, was less composed than I.

"Our world isn't much like yours, not really," he said. "There isn't one city as large as Charn. There's barely any magic, even."

I sneered. "The more surely I shall be worshipped, then."

But — and this was the influence of that place, too — I felt a hint of doubt. To be surrounded by underlings all alike to this boy would be tiresome. I desired no rivals, but I was accustomed to counsellors possessed of their own wit and beauty. If all were such worms as this — even the Magician who had summoned me — I would have much work to make the realm deserving of my rule.

As I considered — and my thoughts worked distressingly slow — the boy seemed to rally himself. "I say," he said, "I'll make a bargain with you."

Laughable, but I let him speak.

"This is only the between-place," said the child. "Each of these pools is the door to another universe. You could conquer any of them. Just leave ours alone."

I saw what kind of creature this was. I have been served by many such. They are followers who will work eagerly to any plan, blind to its darker consequences until it suits them; and then they will raise a wail and cry until it suits them to quiet their conscience again. My advance on his world was such a sticking-point for this boy. But if it afforded me a greater power, I would accept.

"How do you know," I said, for curiosity, "that I shall not come to yours, in time?"

There it was again, that risible stiffening of his spine. "I'm doing you a favour," he said. "You ought to honour that."

That is, indeed, how the logic works for those who do not forge their own greater good.

"Very well," I said, and I took his rings (he tried to pass only the green to me, but I am wise to lies; in such a weakling they are a wearying commonplace), and I, Jadis, Queen of Queens, set out to claim my place as Empress of all Empires, over space and substance, land and sea.

* * *

And Digory, having chosen to strike the bell, wondered ever after what had happened.


End file.
